Self Love Over Fear

One of my biggest blogging fears of diving into the arena of self love, body advocacy, and body diversity has been opening myself up to hateful people. I have been lucky so far, but so many of the women I follow and admire, have come under attack again and again. Plus, there are the things I have had said to me over the years outside of the blogging realm. I’ve always thought if people are bold enough to be hurtful to my face, what will stop them from dishing out some cruel online?

For many years, I didn’t really write much about my struggles, triumphs, hard lessons, or anything else body image related as the fear always kept me from tackling the topic. “They” say you need to face your fears and do something everyday that scares you, so let’s do this thing. I don’t want to be held back by fear. It’s too easy to not do the scary thing and sit back and let others do the work. I want to roll up my sleeves and share my voice. If I can have any small part in helping women learn to love themselves, that sounds like it’s worth facing the fear.

I now proudly wear fabulous plus size clothes that not only make me feel good, but have absolutely help me elevate my everyday style. I now follow a very body diverse group of women on social media. Seeing women of various shapes and sizes inspires me to be true to myself and wear the clothes I love. There are some pretty kick ass women out there sharing some great content…and they aren’t always the peeps with giant follower numbers. Look beyond that number and just enjoy content that makes you happy, fills you up, or can make you laugh. I can’t say it enough, fill your life, in all aspects, with the warm and fuzzy parts and leave the rest.

My greatest driving force is my girls. I want them to grow up confident in who they are and valuing themselves for more then their looks. I want them to know that building others up doesn’t take away from who they are. I want them to wear the bathing suit, play the sports they want, accept a compliment, give a compliment, be kind, and know without a shadow of a doubt that they are indeed enough. With all of this, true beauty will flow out of them.